


Ways of embracing life

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Homicide: Life on the Street
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 19:20:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1522589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Zoole is an artist. She views life in her own special way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ways of embracing life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [likeadeuce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/gifts).



There are so many different ways of embracing life, Emma’s father always said. It’s fleeting and one day it slips through your fingers like light. So many lessons can be learned by embracing death rather than fearing it. Death fascinated her even as a child. How life could flee from someone’s body and leave a husk behind. When her father died she watched him drawing his final breath and turning from life to something else. His spirit flew to heaven she thought and hugged her mother tightly. 

She had her first boys easily. They liked her because she had a rep for being easy. She heard the rumors jealous people whispered and shrugged them off casually. She had fun and they didn’t. Some girls liked her well enough, like her lifelong pal Dorothy. Dotty was sweet and they smoked pot and talked of parties and bright futures and boys. She and Dotty were probably married in another life. She liked the idea of reincarnation. Emma knew she would be a bright, lovely thing whatever she was.

She sought to capture life in clay early on and watched as the material turned from warm and soft to hard and cold in the oven. It was a way of capturing the fleeting essence of the human spirit. Of keeping a moment even as it passes by. A paradox she later tried to capture in bronze and stone.

She couldn’t make a living as sculptor so she started working with making models of crime scenes. She kept them in her apartment, alongside beautiful objects from her journeys all over the world. In a special room she kept bronzed heads of her lovers. Emma knew they would never be so compliant in life. Which was what made them fascinating. In life there was always a spark. Something she couldn’t grant her works. Pygmalion she wasn’t.

She saw Meldrick and wanted there to be a spark, but there really wasn’t. He was attractive enough, but without a spark it wasn’t worth the hassle. She liked Tim Bayliss better; they sparked plenty. She had to do the seducing. He was easily led though. He fell into her coffin-bed and life fast enough. She had his picture on her wall since his involvement with the Adena Watson case. It was a gorgeous face, those eyes and that sensual mouth. She wanted to cast it in bronze. They had a brief time together, in her coffin and out of it. Then he grew too possessive, wanting to shield her like a distressed damsel. She could handle Andy. But Tim had to whiteknight it. She broke it off, with some regrets. He was great in bed, well coffin, and a tad too earnest and naïve out of it. So sensitive and so many issues. He did get bonus points for going down on her more readily than any other lover she’d ever had. Always a plus, but not enough to sustain a relationship.

In the long run Andy got a tad too possessive too, and wouldn’t let her see other people. She let him go though she cried in Dotty’s arms. Dotty told her she always knew things would end like that between them. She would probably say that whatever had happened to Emma and Andy. 

She ran into Meldrick years later, he was with a colleague called Terri Stivers. They seemed very friendly. They were starting a PI form with Meldrick’s partner Kellerman. More money to be made that way, plus less stress. Emma asked about Tim. He’d transferred out of Homicide after taking cases too seriously, now he worked in Robbery. Lewis mentioned he was seeing some guy called Chris. A guy? Tim? Whatever made him happy she supposed.

She found crime scenes fascinating; making models of them was her way of controlling life. Of understanding death. Sometimes it beckoned to her seductively. Those days she made sure to keep very busy. Sometimes she dreamed of ways to make her models better. She slept in her coffin and never felt more alive. Dotty always said it made her a real life Morticia Addams. She didn’t want kids; she had too many things to do. Dotty had twins with her husband. She was more than happy to be auntie Emma. 

She did have an exhibition once with some of her abstract sculpture. Dotty could never understand why it interested her so much, but she helped with the arrangements anyway. Strangely enough Tim came to see it. His height made him stand out in the crowd of people and she walked over to him. He still had a fascinating face, and now he smiled more than he had before. He talked of his new job in robbery and how nice it was to help the living, not just avenge the dead. He still dreamed of Adena, but now she seemed at peace. She noticed a ring on his finger. A husband he said. A restaurant owner he had met on a case. They’d been together for years now. Emma smiled at him and mentioned her own husband, Will. Will was away that night, painting as usual. She invited Tim back to her coffin-bed, but he politely declined. He was being exclusive with Chris Rawls. She belonged with Will, but she still saw others when she needed to. So did he. 

She saw a bird take flight later that night. Its wings carried it to the sky. It was so fragile and yet full of strength. Its spirit could never be tamed. Neither could hers.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always been fascinated by Emma Zoole. To date there have been far too few stories about her. I've gone AU since you specified you didn't like the last two seasons and the movie. I kept Tim's relationship with Chris Rawls, and made it more serious than it was on the show. Kellerman in this reality didn't kill Luther Mahoney. I think Luther just went to jail or was killed by his sister maybe. It's not that important for the story, but I thought I should mention it.


End file.
